Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Flower

While it does produce edible sweet potato tubers albeit not very palatable and bitter the ornamental variety bears more colorful foliage making it a popular houseplant.

Ornamental sweet potato vine flower.

Ipomoea batatas sweet caroline this variety is not just one coloration of plant but includes five separate color options yellowish green red purple bronze and light green varieties are available. Popular varieties like marguerite have small round tubers while varieties like blackie have longer narrower tubers. Ipomoea butatas or sweet potato vine thrives in hot tropical climates and is an ornamental foliage plant often used as a foil for flowering displays. The foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms.

That means the tubers it forms are actually edible. Often grown in container gardens for its trailing stems of purple chartreuse or variegated foliage ornamental sweet potato vine is actually related to the sweet potatoes you d grow in your vegetable garden. While the ornamental sweet potato plants don t often flower when blackie does it produces lavender or purple trumpet like flowers. The ornamental sweet potato plant ipomoea butatas is somewhat different from its southern grown vegetable sibling.

Although the plant works well as a ground cover it is especially effective.